


Director's Report // 04/22/07AF

by Gray Shadows (the_afterlight)



Category: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 02:55:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5522786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_afterlight/pseuds/Gray%20Shadows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite being the leader of the Academy, a new discovery leads Hope to taking a hand in some field work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Director's Report // 04/22/07AF

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NightsMistress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightsMistress/gifts).



Palumpolum // 007 AF

Leaning back from his desk screen, Hope Estheim groaned as he rolled out his neck and stretched out his shoulders. "I have got to stop spending so much time staring at this screen," he admonished himself, pushing his chair back and moving away from his desk. He walked over to the window, staring out at the top of the Gran Elevator.

It was the pinnacle of human engineering, Hope knew, but all he could think about was that it linked Gran Pulse directly Palumpolum, not far from where Eden had fallen to Cocoon's surface in the wake of Orphan's death. Building their new headquarters out of the wreckage of the Sanctum was probably meant to be symbolic, he knew, but mostly he just thought it was morbid. He'd rather be anywhere else. "I should suggest moving the Academy headquarters somewhere else," he mused.

"You might want to stop talking to yourself, too."

Whirling around at the unexpected voice, Hope reached for his boomerang -- which, he remembered, he wasn't currently carrying, not in the Academy headquarters, where personal weapons were prohibited -- but relaxed when he realised who was speaking. "Hi, Dad," he said, shaking his head at himself. "If you figure out how, you could let me know. You're worse than I am when you're in the middle of something."

Bartholomew laughed, but nodded, agreeing. "I suppose you're right. But yes, it might be good if you spent some time away from your desk. In fact, I was wondering if you might like to do some field work. There's a new site opening up, and I think the team there could make use of your... particular fields of expertise. I know your duties as the leader of the Academy take precedence, but..." He trailed off, shrugging.

Hope frowned. "I don't mind," he said. "You know I'm trying to take as much of a hands-on approach as I can. But... What expertise? Is this... something about l'Cie?"

"We're not entirely sure." Bartholomew pulled a small data stick out of his pocket and held it out. Hope took it, flipping it in his fingers for a moment before inserting it into his computer. "It's here, on Cocoon, but it appears to be related to Pulse l'Cie somehow."

"Maybe an Ark," Hope mused, navigating through the file list. There were a few different preliminary field reports, with some accompanying images. He opened them all to skim through before reading a little more thoroughly. "Or something else that the fal'Cie brought to Cocoon after the war."

Bartholomew leaned over Hope's shoulder, resting one hand of the back of his chair as he pointed at one of the images with the other. "That's what we thought at first, too, but... Look at this."

Right in the middle of a mural, surrounded on all sides by images of the Pulse l'Cie brand, was Cocoon.

Suspended by a crystal pillar.

* * *

Hope's boomerang swung out and around, slicing at each of the Pulse wardrones before returning to his hand. "C'mon! Before they recover!" he shouted; behind him, the bodyguards assigned to his research team glanced at each other before sighting down their rifles and firing at the drones. Their combined fire, along with another few impacts from Hope's electrified boomerang, caused the drones to fall apart in a shower of sparks. Hope glanced around, waiting to see if any more drones were about to appear, but it seemed that things had quieted down. He waved the team forward. "Dr. Wainwright, are we close?" he asked the head researcher.

"It should be just ahead," Dr. Wainwright confirmed. "Just past these next doors."

Hope nodded, and let his boomerang collapse as he sheathed it. "All right, people," he called out. "Let's make some history." The doors were large, made of some kind of heavy metal, but at Hope's touch they swung open. 

The room was, as Hope had seen from the images, relatively large: not cavernous, but there was room for him and the entire team to stand and move around comfortably, even after they set up their equipment. "Everything reads normal," one of the researchers said, going over basic sensor readings. "Not picking up anything out of the ordinary. No paradox readings, either."

"That doesn't make sense." Hope walked over to the mural and ran one hand down from Cocoon to the pillar's base. "There's no way that they could have known this would happen. Not on Gran Pulse, before the war even happened. Right? And this is definitely an Ark, definitely pulled from Gran Pulse after the war."

The researchers around him shrugged. "We know so little about the paradox. Maybe someone or something came back and told them? Maybe if the paradox itself isn't... active, maybe it won't leave any readings."

"There has to be something else," Hope insisted. "This could be some kind of shrine, right? Maybe somewhere important. This was drawn for a reason."

"Director Estheim!"

Hope's attention moved to one of the bodyguards, who'd been leaning against a wall as the researchers set up their work. "What? Anders, what is it?"

Anders stepped away from the wall, holding in his hands some kind of device. It was a dodecahedron, mostly, although the planes were inset, creating additional surfaces. "I don't know, sir," he explained. "It's almost like it fell out of the wall and into my hands."

"Wainwright, catalog it," Hope instructed, moving over to the wall. "Anders, show me _exactly_ where you were standing."

Something was here, he knew: and maybe that something would help explain the paradox.

* * *

_Director's Report, 04/22/07AF_

_After examining the room where the device was found, further evidence was found linking the Ark to the area around the Paddra Ruins on Gran Pulse. According to Gran Pulse history -- what little we were able to learn -- the city of Paddra was home to a great seeress. It's possible that the several images (see attached, figures d.1, d.2, and d.7) we found of Cocoon atop the crystal pillar are unrelated to the paradox itself, and are in fact further proof of the Paddra seer's authenticity._

_I am authorising an exploratory mission to the Yaschas Massif, in hopes that we will discover further information on the Paddrans and their mysterious device. With luck, we may even find a way to activate the device, or otherwise unearth its secrets._


End file.
